Redefining the Muslim Community : Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi / Alexander Orwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Orwin, Alexander, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fārāb--Political and social views.

Fārāb.

Ummah (Islam).

Islam and state.

Ethnicity--Political aspects.

Ethnicity.

Islamic philosophy.

Philosophy, Medieval.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Writing in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Baghdad, Alfarabi (870-950) is unique in the history of premodern political philosophy for his extensive discussion of the nation, or Umma in Arabic. The term Umma may be traced back to the Qur'ān and signifies, then and now, both the Islamic religious community as a whole and the various ethnic nations of which that community is composed, such as the Turks, Persians, and Arabs. Examining Alfarabi's political writings as well as parts of his logical commentaries, his book on music, and other treatises, Alexander Orwin contends that the connections and tensions between ethnic and religious Ummas explored by Alfarabi in his time persist today in the ongoing political and cultural disputes among the various nationalities within Islam. According to Orwin, Alfarabi strove to recast the Islamic Umma as a community in both a religious and cultural sense, encompassing art and poetry as well as law and piety. By proposing to acknowledge and accommodate diverse Ummas rather than ignoring or suppressing them, Alfarabi anticipated the contemporary concept of "Islamic civilization," which emphasizes culture at least as much as religion. Enlisting language experts, jurists, theologians, artists, and rulers in his philosophic enterprise, Alfarabi argued for a new Umma that would be less rigid and more creative than the Muslim community as it has often been understood, and therefore less inclined to force disparate ethnic and religious communities into a single mold. Redefining the Muslim Community demonstrates how Alfarabi's judicious combination of cultural pluralism, religious flexibility, and political prudence could provide a blueprint for reducing communal strife in a region that continues to be plagued by it today.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

A Note on Citations and Abbreviations

Introduction. Alfarabi and the Question of the Umma (Nation)

Chapter 1. The Nation in Plato and Aristotle: An Obstacle to Virtuous Rule

Chapter 2. From Speechlessness to Civilization: The Evolution of the Umma

Chapter 3. Philosophy and the Umma: An Uneasy Coexistence

Chapter 4. Another Kind of Umma: The Origin of the Islamic Umma

Chapter 5. The Mission of the Virtuous Umma: Ethnic Accommodation Within Islam

Chapter 6. Between City and Empire: The Political Significance of the Umma

Chapter 7. The Umma Among the Ignorant Associations: Nationalism and the Threat of War

Conclusion. The Intermediate Association

Notes

Works Cited

Index of Proper Names

Index of Subjects

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-242) and indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 19. Jan 2018)

ISBN:

9780812293906

0812293908

OCLC:

992454586